Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press 19-02-2017

Today's issues: Trump in denial over rising American anti-Semitism, Netanyahu’s puppet in the Communications Ministry, Trump and the territories, and the case of disappearing support.

The Jerusalem Post focuses on US President Donald Trump’s tendency to ignore the rising wave of anti-Semitism in the United States, and asserts: “His failure and inability to publicly and unequivocally denounce antisemitism and to say something as simple as: I have ordered the Justice Department to crack down on hate crimes, is concerning. The failure to be clear on the issue will give antisemites the impression that the president actually supports them, and their attacks might even escalate as a result.”

Haaretz notes that PM Netanyahu has been obliged under the pressure of High Court petitions to relinquish his hold on the Communications Ministry, putting it for the next three months in the hands of Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Han egbi who is totally dependent on Netanyahu and has no independent political existence without the him, and declares: “Over the next three months it will become clear if Netanyahu can kill off the new public broadcasting corporation as part of his obsessive effort to prevent the severing of public broadcasting from the politicians. Although Hanegbi has agreed to be Netanyahu’s puppet at the Communications Ministry, the High Court of Justice shouldn’t be tempted to believe this display.”

Yediot Aharonot comments: “After eight long Obama years, it is heartening to hear the White House declare that it does not see existing settlements as an obstacle to peace,” but adds: “Most of the disputed land in the ‘territories’ is barren and unpopulated by either Jews or Arabs. The title to that territory needs to be negotiated and finalized. Until then and for the sake of reciprocity, if Jews are asked to stop building homes, Arabs should be required to do the same; limiting Jews while giving Arabs a free hand is not reciprocity—it’s racism.”

Israel Hayom discusses the new chapter in Israel-US relations and the resultant dramatic shift in U.S. policy, which affects both Israel and the Palestinians, and notes: “Trump has debunked, in one fell swoop, the strategy employed by the Palestinians over the past two decades -- a strategy that sought to globalize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by using international bodies to pressure Israel into making concessions that cater solely to Palestinian interests, and which sought to dictate a solution that if rejected by Israel, would see Jerusalem subjected to diplomatic and economic sanctions and Israeli leaders prosecuted at the International Court in The Hague as war criminals.”